News

The green circles in this satellite image of southwestern Kansas are crops being watered by central pivot irrigation, which draws water from a well in the center of each field. Some of the water is groundwater from deep under the Great Plains states. (Credit: NASA)
We recently wrote about HAS Assistant Professor Laura Condon's important new study showing groundwater pumping's role in the reduction of U.S. stream flows, and this week (July 1) Mari Jensen's original article about the study, Groundwater Pumping Has Significantly Reduced US Stream Flows, was featured on the DOE Office of Science... Read More

HAS Department Head Eric Betterton speaking on PBS' Arizona 360 about summer's effect on air quality.
Photo Credit: Arizona Public Media
Eric Betterton, University Distinguished Professor and HAS Department Head, recently spoke with Arizona Public Media's Arizona 360 host and producer Lorraine Rivera about summer's effect on air quality in Southern Arizona.
Betterton, who also chairs the Pima County Environmental Quality Advisory Council, explained how excess heat can affect the air we breathe by impacting the risk for wildfires and causing urban ozone levels to concentrate. "Last year in 201... Read More

Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Barbara Warren, MD, Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility Arizona Chapter, and Professor Eric Betterton, UA Dept. of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, speak at a news conference regarding the dangers of rolling back the federal clean car standards. The event was held in a classroom at the Pima Medical Institute. Photo Credit: June 25, 2019, Christopher Conover/AZPM
At a news conference on Tuesday, HAS Department Head and University of Arizona Distinguished Professor Eric Betterton joined a group of scientists,... Read More

The Arizona Department of Transportation is set to use a $54 million federal grant to widen sections of I-10 and implement a project that would reduce dust-related crashes. The project includes long-range radar set near Picacho Peak that can detect approaching dust storms from 50 miles away.
The Arizona Department of Transportation recorded 85 dust-related crashes along the busy freeway from Phoenix to Tucson from 2010 to 2015. According to a 2016 report by the National Weather Service and the UA, dust is the third-leading cause of weather-related deaths behind extreme temperatures and flash f... Read More

Groundwater pumping in the last century has contributed as much as 50 percent to stream flow declines in some U.S. rivers, according to new research led by HAS Assistant Professor Laura Condon. This is the first study to look at the impact of past groundwater pumping across the entire U.S. Other researchers have examined how pumping has affected surface waters, but at smaller scales. This comprehensive study is extremely important because groundwater is often the slowest component of the terrestrial hydrologic system to recover from losses, Condon said.
Using a computer model, Condon and her c... Read More